Finally, rumblings of ‘real tension’ between Tom Brady and Bruce Arians
98.5 The Sports Hub staff report
Perhaps Tom Brady’s move to Tampa Bay as the face of the Buccaneers hasn’t been what he thought it would be. And perhaps that feeling is mutual on the part of Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians, according to rumblings revealed by Dan Graziano.
“There’s a lot of theories, obviously it was supposed to work better than this, but one of them is that there is real tension,” Graziano said during an appearance on ESPN’s ‘Get Up’ earlier this week. “Bruce Arians and Tom Brady just met, it’s almost like Arians was watching some sort of movie star action hero, and then met him in person and said, ‘I thought you’d be bigger.’”
Now, things aren’t exactly horrible for the Bucs. At 7-4, they are currently in the NFC postseason mix as the sixth-best team in the conference, but they’ve struggled against the conference’s best, with two losses to the Saints, and a Monday Night Football loss to the Los Angeles Rams earlier this week. That loss to the Rams featured two straight-up ugly interceptions from Brady, too, and more criticism from Arians in the wake of the loss.
“I think [Brady]’s getting confused a few times with the coverage,” Arians said Tuesday. “That might be the cause for some inaccurate balls, but I don’t see it at all in practice. We’re not missing the deep ball in practice, that’s for sure. It’s just a matter on Sundays hitting them.”
(The deep ball misses have undoubtedly become an issue, with Brady completing just one of his last 19 attempts of at least 20 yards.)
Arians also went with the passive-aggressive ‘best to ask him’ when asked about Brady’s second interception, too.
This isn’t what you think you’d say about the quarterback who has all the answers to the test, but according to Graziano, this may come with Arians feeling unsatisfied given their team-wide catering to Brady’s wants.
The Bucs added LeSean McCoy and Leonard Fournette, brought Rob Gronkowski out of retirement, and even brought Antonio Brown to Tampa Bay following his suspension. The last addition feels especially noteworthy, too, as Arians repeatedly shot down the idea of bringing Brown to Tampa given his experience with him in Pittsburgh.
In other words, Arians likely wants something better than a 7-4 record and losses against the NFC’s best.
“If you’re Arians, you’re looking, going saying, ‘This is what you wanted, we got you everything you asked for, why aren’t you delivering, why doesn’t it look like it looks in practice,'” Graziano relayed. “And I think you’re seeing some frustration bubbled to the surface.”
The Bucs will look to get back in the win column on Sunday against the defending champion Chiefs.
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